The only aspects of the Retina display that will be limited will be the pixel elements (window chrome),

Which is important. Critical, even, for me, because I work in Java and I doubt Oracle's going to roll out support anytime soon.

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but I don't think the actual window contents (text, images, etc) will be.

I use 16pt fonts as-is not because I can't read smaller, but because the sizing is more comfortable on the screen. It looks better and reads more easily. I can still do that (pursuant to wacky font spacing issues at what are no longer "standard" font sizes--you know the ones, where Consolas looks fucked up because you're at 18pt instead of 16pt), but the chrome being scale-unfriendly is a major downer.

Kinda!? Apple's insulting gouging on commodity parts to continue apace in the new era apparently. At least you're free to use your own drive in that model. The retina one you're stuck with Apple's junk.

From the screenshots, flypenfly, the tools are identical in size (double pixels unless the UI controls are wholly custom or are updated to be Retina compatible), while the content is much higher resolution.

Until people get their hands on one, it's tough to say which apps go which way; totally bitmapped UI controls may simply double the pixels, or they may preserve 1:1 (and thus shrink 1/2 in size).

At least for now, and with it 1920x1200 resolution screens. That was (IMHO) the whole justification for that model, and as a desktop replacement screen that was pretty important.

The Retina screen packs in 600 more pixels (provided your app supports it), but it's doing that in a much smaller vertical space. At some point the MK1 eyeball, especially aging eyeballs, can't keep up.

While I'm complaining, Apple has also deleted the Kensington Lock Port from the Retina Display model MacBook Pro.

I've got compliance requirements to deal with with respect for lossage and laptop locks are by far the easiest solution. They're not a perfect solution from a technical standpoint, but they meed my compliance regs.

IMHO, that's pretty stupid on a device that can cost $3k and is likely to be found on places like college campuses where theft is rampant.

At least give me another, better option if you're going to abandon the industry standard. I'm not surprised after the first two generations of MacBook Air and the new Minis, but those are in completely different price classes.

Watching the video again, it looks like the new MBP uses the same style of hard drive as the MBA, no? I'm just thinking about that $500 price jump from 512 to 768 GB and wondering if it's worth it or if I should wait for prices to fall...

from 5 feet away will it appear as though i have my resolution set at 960x600 or will chrome appear physically small, similar to my 17". my assumption is the latter. if this is accurate then i potentially have what i've always been after: as much usable screen real estate as my 17" in a smaller package.

Watching the video again, it looks like the new MBP uses the same style of hard drive as the MBA, no? I'm just thinking about that $500 price jump from 512 to 768 GB and wondering if it's worth it or if I should wait for prices to fall...

I don't think it does.

Go to the Retina MBP "Design" page and click on the image that shows the bottom. It will switch to showing the innards. The storage looks soldered to me.

Watching the video again, it looks like the new MBP uses the same style of hard drive as the MBA, no? I'm just thinking about that $500 price jump from 512 to 768 GB and wondering if it's worth it or if I should wait for prices to fall...

I wouldn't expect either to be "cheap" anytime soon. The price is dropping pretty dynamically for 2.5" form factor SSDs, but that form factor has broader 3rd party support and much more competition.

The $500 price jump isn't really indicative of how much the flash actually costs, of course.

It appears that new new retina Macbook uses the same (upgradable) drives as the Macbook Air, but still has the ram soldered to the board, unless we can get confirmation otherwise, I would be careful about ordering it with intent to upgrade.

It appears that new new retina Macbook uses the same (upgradable) drives as the Macbook Air, but still has the ram soldered to the board, unless we can get confirmation otherwise, I would be careful about ordering it with intent to upgrade.

I'm definitely upgrading the RAM; the $200 upgrade is pretty marginal. I just don't know if $500 for an extra 256 GB of storage is a great idea or not. Also, if you want an expanded view of the MBP internals, there is one in the video on Apple.com a minute or two from the end. Other than the fans, the only part that looks detached from the main board is the SSD.

The Retina MBP looks like an awesome "flagship" machine, but from a practical standpoint, a wait-and-see approach looks like a good call. For one thing, Retina on a Mac definitely isn't as clear-cut as on iOS. Crisp text and pictures are great, but sometimes more pixels are better used for putting more stuff on the screen (think Xcode). Seems like it's going to depend a lot on how individual apps are updated to support it.

The other thing that occurs to me is that this very much feels like a product where waiting for revision 2 may be very beneficial. I'm thinking specifically in the area of graphics cards and thermals. The video makes it sound all nice and happy that the airflow is designed well, but the previous generation MBPs can be pretty sketchy when it comes to heat and fan noise. Definitely something I'll be keeping an eye out for in reviews. Graphics may also be an issue - that's a lot of pixels to be pushing around, even more so if you add two (!!!) external displays. Seems like performance could lacking in some situations - again, something to watch for in reviews.

Finally, disappointed to see ethernet going, but not surprising if they were going to make it any thinner. Glad they came out with a cheap TB dongle, but this seems like the perfect opportunity to come out with a mini-ethernet standard. It seems to me like the RJ-45 connector has a lot of unnecessary bulk - couldn't Apple come up with one that's half the height and make it royalty-free? I'd love to see something electrically compatible (no chips or adapters required, just a different piece of plastic) with existing ethernet. Wishful thinking perhaps, but it seems like a missed opportunity.

Aside: The TB adapter is also missing any pass-through options, so on an Air you're still stuck with needing a TB display if you want an external monitor & full speed ethernet together (which seems like a common scenario to me - when do you have wired ethernet without being at a desk).

^ I think a wait-and-see approach is obvious for anyone that doesn't have money to blow. The 15" Retina will most definitely be sub-$2000 in a year. The only real question is whether it will have decent storage space by that time.

I'm more with TheHunter. It's a halo product that will probably sell more than it should-- it's going to take some time to get the software in place and I fear that the mobile 650m is just not appropriate for that screen.

The push away from things like Ethernet are getting really, really frustrating. I'm really OK that the hardware is bounded by USB for size and I'm somewhat happy that DVI and VGA are no longer size constraints, but I would prefer it be bounded by RJ45. At some point you can make stuff thinner-- e.g. iPads are quite do-able today-- but you have to settle on some solution that's more elegant than a bag full of dongles.

I'm tempted by the retina - I'd like to replace my ageing 2008 Mac Pro with a Mac Book, and this might be the one.

However, if I use TB>DVI adapters to drive my 2 24" Cinema Displays, then there's no way of plugging in Ethernet (nor of connecting to a TB HD, though USB 3 should be fine). There's also the heat issue that's been mentioned.